Monthly Archives: May 2016

The easy answer is that it’s because the thieves are worthless scumbags, but I’ll put that aside for the moment.

I have maintained a food cache near my campsite for many moons, as a matter of convenience so I don’t have to ride the bus all the way down to King Soopers to shop every day. (I don’t receive food stamps nor do I patronize the many venues serving food to the needy). Sometimes, the wild critters like mice and foxes have helped themselves to items like bread and chips, since they’re unable to open my canned goods despite their ingenuity, otherwise. This doesn’t bother me in the least; indeed, I often share chips with the mice and stale bread or chicken bones with the foxes and occasionally a skunk (I toss my donations far away from my sleeping spot, because Br’er Fox and Br’er Skunk…

Photo taken at the “Horseshoe” on Boulder Creek Path near Boulder High School

Self-destructive behaviors — including drinking, drugging, smoking tobacco, and hanging out in transient rat packs — make life so much more difficult than it has to be. Stop wasting your meager disposable income and your precious time on this nonsense! Get clean and sober, attend to your personal hygiene requirements, and meet new friends who belong to the broader community in which you live. It will open up a whole new world of positive experiences and opportunities, which can NEVER be discovered at Bridge House or any of the other popular bum hangouts.

Make no mistake about it: Isabel McDevitt, Joy Eckstine Redstone, and others of their ilk will keep you down forever if you allow them to do so. Their creed is More Homeless People = More…

Thompson, the co-owner of the Mountain Man Outdoor Store, voiced a degree of compassion for some of the people living in the forest. And he’s one more person trying to be part of the solution; he spent part of a recent Saturday helping to clean up the West Magnolia campsite.

“I lived in San Francisco for 15 years, and for a year and a half of that, Iwas homeless. So I am well versed in what the good and bad of the situation is,” Thompson said.

“Some people, they have nothing else that they can do. But there’s a fair amount of people who do it because, ‘Oh it’s free, I can live up in the woods for the summer, not pay any money and just do whatever I want.'”

Theft from stores — his and others — is one more problem linked to the issue.

“They use all sorts of techniques and tactics, so they’re doing it knowingly,” said Paul Carrill, the town marshal. “We’ve had examples of the sole individual shoplifter, all the way up to the swarming of a dozen transients into the grocery store, all taking things beyond the ability of the shop owner or law enforcement to grab all of them at once.

“That scares and upsets a community and the business owner, so we’re addressing those types of things directly and severely.”

Several people interviewed invoked the legalization of marijuana as just one more lure for some of the out-of-state itinerant to Colorado national forest lands — despite the fact that using it on federal lands is illegal. Begley, the young mother tending her baby in a tent, was of those happy to see the Colorado give pot the green light.

“I’m from Humboldt County, Calif., so obviously, I’m going to be promoting marijuana,” she said. “I mean, marijuana has helped me. Marijuana has got me off harder drugs. Marijuana has helped me raise my children … I think Colorado is on the right path.”

Meanwhile, whether Nederland and its neighbors are on course to correct problems associated with people living in the national forestremains to be seen. Tools being employed even include Boulder County Jail inmates, periodically being taken on work details to campgrounds that need cleanup or rehabilitation.

“I think we can solve this problem,” said Hall, creator of the “Transients/troublemakers” Facebook page. “I think there are always going to be transients and troublemakers moving through this area. That has been the case for 50 years.

“But, part of that sentence is, ‘moving through.’ Leave the forest. Leave it as you found it. And then move on.”

This is what I anticipated would happen, when I first heard about Boulder Shelter for the Homeless’s Summer Bed program, intended to increase the number of beds available to homeless men and women after the emergency overnight dorms closed on May 1st.

Because nothing at all goes on in any of the programs at BSH during the daytime hours from 8AM until 5PM — no GED classes, no on-site access to social services agencies, no 12-step groups for substance abusers seeking to get clean and sober (nor is any of this available in the nighttime hours) — these Summer Bed clients just hang around the neighborhood all day. Yesterday, there were several of ’em gathered on the wall in front of the Mexican restaurant in the 4900 block of N. Broadway. Fortunately, they were sober, but lying down and…

I was awakened by the owls’ conversation in my neighborhood very early this morning; it seemed that it was coming from three directions and close by, too. Of course, this is much better than the yelling of pickled idjits leaving the Bustop Gentleman’s Club, and the wild critters pose no threat to anyone in my experience here. Coyotes, bears, mountain lions, and owls; I regard them all as fellow residents of the Great Outdoors.

A trio of snoozing Barn Owls

I wouldn’t mind sharing an old barn with these birds of prey, either. They would keep the field mice from raiding my leftover corn chips and scurrying across my face as I sleep, no doubt.

A kind lady asked me yesterday, after handing me a $10 bill as I played the role of humble beggar at…

From three years ago, before I blocked Mr. Hayes on Facebook and before the Daily Camera switched to its current Disqus commenting format (previous comments have disappeared). Bill Hayes left a childish comment on this blog yesterday (which I deleted, of course), and I was surprised that he still follows the Homeless Philosopher after so many years. At the same time, his remark tickled me; he said something to the effect that I should be glad that Boulder has compassion, otherwise I’d be run out of town on a rail. LOL! File under Only in Boulder.

Note: Mr. Hayes claims to have a Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Counseling from Naropa University, and has also claimed to be associated with Bridge House in comments made on the Daily Camera website as BoulderBill, and I believe him.

This exchange occurred in response to an article posted on the DC Facebook page, and as you’ll see it drifted far away from the subject at hand:

Max Weller: It would be more to the point to seek the involuntary commitment of all those, like James Holmes, who make repeated violent threats to their shrinks — and to hold those mental health “professionals” accountable for their failure(s) to protect the public.

Bill Hayes: The two are not mutually exclusive, Max, and both have constitutional implications (and, thankfully, we don’t take lightly incarcerating people for what they say when angry).

I enjoyed a restful night at my campsite in north Boulder, after a late dinner of Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Ravioli and Hostess Ding Dongs (I never intended to eat more fruits and vegetables every single day). And this morning, for the first time in two weeks, I could bend my left elbow far enough to use a Q-tip in my left ear after my shower at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. The lingering attack of gout in that joint is almost over now, and perhaps my switch to ibuprofen from aspirin will help to prevent a recurrence.

I also enjoyed my time on the corner at N. Broadway & U.S. 36 yesterday afternoon/evening between 4:30 and 6:15PM; the weather was perfect, after I was rained out on Wednesday, and people were in a generous mood. BTW, I want to thank my friend Ruth for having provided…